


White Noise

by ZaliaChimera



Series: White Noise [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Protectiveness, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 11:39:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4099627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZaliaChimera/pseuds/ZaliaChimera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wash rarely wears his helmet anymore. It makes it easier for Maine to tell if it's Wash he's talking to, or The Meta.</p>
            </blockquote>





	White Noise

"Wash."

No answer.

"Washington!"

Nothing. Still staring ahead. Still holding his rifle. Still hair triggered.

"David?"

Old name. Unfamiliarity might work.

Nothing.

Has to do it then.

"Meta."

That works. Wash jerks, falters, loosens stance. 

Enough for Maine to grab him, pry the rifle from his hands while he's switching from code to words. Humanity bleeding back into his eyes. Should be wearing his helmet, even if it makes the Reds and Blues nervous when Wash puts it on. Maine's glad he isn't. It makes it easier to see which Wash he's talking to. How he needs to handle him.

It takes a second for him. Maine thinks it takes longer for Wash, seconds dragging out in computing time to a slow crawl. The AIs' legacy to him. Maine has never asked. Wash doesn't say.

"Maine?" Wash says, blinking like he's just woken up. "What...? Why do you have my gun?"

Maine rolls his eyes. Knows Wash can't see it but will get it anyway from the set of his shoulders, the cant of his head. Intuitive. 

"Right. It was like that," Wash says. He scrapes a hand across his face, pushes back blond hair gone shaggy. Tucker had offered to cut it with that fancy sword. Maine is half-sure he was joking. "What happened this time?"

There are a hundred questions wrapped in that one. Maine can decipher a lot of them by now. 'Did I hurt anyone?' is usually top of the list, followed by 'Should I have hurt someone?' 'What triggered it?' 'Are we in immediate danger?', with 'Do I need to be put down?' a tiny, quiet addition at the end.

Maine would answer, but the answer comes to them. He'd told her to wait. To give him time. He remembers her impatience from when she'd thrown him off a building. Should have expected this.

"Why is the Meta here, Maine?"

Wash looks up sharply, eyes wide, tensing. Maine slips between him and Carolina. Hopes its enough to keep Meta out of Wash.

"Carolina?" Wash says. "I thought you were dead."

"You'd know, wouldn't you?" 

Maine decides that he is surrounded by idiots, and this time he doesn't mean the sim troopers.


End file.
